


There is a boy

by mercuriallyCooperative



Category: Elsewhere University (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, POV Outsider, POV Second Person, achronological because this au has way too much going on even before we get to the EU parts, i suspect this is going to use inktober/goretober prompts wildly and with impunity, technically a stealth crossover but don't worry about it, what is organization
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-27 05:31:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16212431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercuriallyCooperative/pseuds/mercuriallyCooperative
Summary: (archive, archive, what do you see/looking at the boy staring back at thee?)or: where Takahashi Kana inadvertently becomes the strangest student in West Dorm during his time at Elsewhere University, and Archive doesn't understand what the hell is going on.





	There is a boy

There is a boy you meet during orientation. 

He introduces himself as Takahashi Kana, or Kana Takahashi in the Western order. He smiles wryly when the orientation leader tries to tell him to pick a nickname, and didn't his registration papers cover this?

"My name's not Takahashi Kana," he explains, and he sounds like there's a private joke in the words.

…

There is a watch that does not keep time around Kana Takahashi’s left wrist. Or- you don’t think it does. You can hear it ticking in quiet hallways, but when you glimpse it as his sleeve rides up (reaching for the microwave on top of the fridge in the dorm kitchen), it has no hands on its face. 

You think over those words for a moment. It’s probably just as well, on second thought, the lack of hands on a face; clocks are already strange creatures, especially here. It didn’t take you long to realize _that_.

…

“I’ve got to head off,” Kana Takahashi begins, as the first day of orientation winds to a close and the sky grows dark. Your orientation group is all from the same dorm, and you’ve just finished settling in all your luggage; Kana is across the hall from you. His roommate hasn’t yet arrived, but you’ve seen Kana’s things neatly unpacked and a bed claimed inside.

“You’ve- where?” your orientation guide asks, mirroring your own and the rest of the group’s confusion. There’s nothing much planned for the rest of the night, but it doesn’t seem wise, to wander on your first night in this place. 

You are horribly, horribly baffled when the boy explains he needs to get home, which is in Japan, no he won’t tell you the city, but he’s got to meet up with his friends because they have a sort of night-job and he’s got a shift tonight.

“… timezones?” your roommate, Charcoal, manages weakly. _Travel time???_ you find yourself thinking.

Kana shrugs. “It was morning when I left and morning when I got here, and I called a friend at lunch. And it was lunchtime for both of us. Same day.” He smiles, too widely. “Home’s just past the Denny’s on campus, the Denny’s that doesn’t officially exist at home, if that helps?”

It does not help. It does not help at all. 

(Your orientation guide seems appeased, at least.)

(You really, really wonder how students can go their entire time at this school without noticing anything strange.)

**Author's Note:**

> ... so I didn't notice that I'd named the POV character 'Archive' and was posting this on Archive of Our Own until just now, after I'd posted it. Uh, ehehehe, whoops? Happy coincidence?


End file.
